use Modern::Perl;
use utf8;

while (<DATA>) {
    my @words = ($_ =~ m/[a-zA-Z0-9]+\s/g);
    say 'Regex  : ', join '*', @words;
    @words = ($_ =~ m/[a-zA-Z0-9]+\s*/g);
    say 'Regex *: ', join '*', @words;
    @words = split /[^\pL\pN]+/; # split on non letters + numbers
    say 'split:   ', join '*', @words;
}


__DATA__
This is a simple sentence.
This one has punctuation, indeed it has!
And  multiple  spaces  all  over  the  place  !
And nön-ascii chàraçtérs, wôw!
What about l33t sp33ch 4 u?